November 11, 2010

TIME’s Boehner: The Seducer

“Was just pointed out to me that Pelosi was never on covers of TIME/Newsweek by herself. Boehner has now been on both.”

Yes, still one more Boehner cover, these version especially fawning as compared to Newsweek and The New Yorker. (In a more painterly treatment, he’s also on the cover of the National Journal, too.) Sorry for the inundation if you’re approaching or have already hit your Boehner fill, but tracking these covers, and examining the “it boy” treatment, is instructive for us to truly understand how a Republican Party coronation is taking place. (Senate and White House, eat your heart out.)

In the TIME cover, what’s interesting is how it exploits both seduction and innocence. That gaze and the baby blues and the red hot red makes Boehner out as America’s new lover boy. At the same time, the somewhat goofy/plain happy set to his mouth rounds out the “sexy” with a disarming guilelessness.

Combine “the swoon effect” with the triumphantalist copy: “Mr. Speaker,” “how Boehner will rule,” “the Republican revolution” and those folks who don’t know any better might as well give it over now.